A woman sat in the employee cafeteria of a fiber optic company. She worked as a housekeeper and she never had enough money to pay her bills. She was talking to one of the security guards. Telling him about her hard life. One step forward two steps back. Two new tires and a speeding ticket blew her budget this pay day.
``I get so tired,'' she said,''sometimes I just want to give up - but what does that mean, ``give up?'' I got nothing to give up - except living and I'm not that crazy.''
``You got your kids,'' the guard said.
``I got my kids,'' she agreed.
``You could try praying,'' the guard said, ``it works for me.''
``Yeah, but you believe in God. I don't.''
``Well, pray to him anyway.''
``If there was a god he wouldn't think much of a person who prayed to him without believing in him.''
``You must believe in something,'' the guard said. He didn't like the housekeeper much, he wanted to get away from her.
``Yeah, right. Elvis Presley.''
``Then pray to Elvis,'' said the guard, and he picked up his plate and cup and walked away.
On the way home from work she stayed carefully under the speed limit as she sang a little prayer to Elvis. She created a song and it really was quite good. She was almost sorry to get home. She only sang in the car where no one could hear her.
Next morning she was up early to take the dog for a run along the bike path that bordered the freeway. At first she thought it was trash blowing about on the shoulder. Then she looked again. It was money! Twenty, ten, five and one dollar bills twirling in the wake of flying trucks.
In a flash Max the dog was tied to a post and she was over the fence and scooping up bills wildly. She had three bread bags for scraping dog poop. Now they were jammed with money. A car stopped. Then another.
``It's money from Elvis!'' she called, and left the newcomers to collect their own small fortunes.
``Money from Elvis!'' They said.
By the time the T.V. mobile units and the police arrived she and Max were home safe, counting the money.
``Where'd you get that?'' Her amazed children asked. But the youngest boy had the T.V. on and heard the story.
``You should give it back!'' He looked at her with righteous light grey eyes. ``It belongs to the bank.''
She looked right back into his eyes so like his father's.
``It's my money. I prayed for it. It's money from Elvis and I'm going to keep it.''